Profile

Johanna Elfenbein, DVM, PhD, DACVIM

Assistant Professor, Equine Medicine

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Dr. Elfenbein received her undergraduate degree in biochemical sciences from Harvard in 2003. She earned her DVM from the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine in 2007. She completed an internship in large animal medicine and surgery at the University of Georgia and returned to the University of Florida for her large animal internal medicine residency. She attained board certification in the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine in 2011. Following residency training, Dr. Elfenbein went to Texas A&M University for her PhD training in biomedical sciences, funded by the NIH T32 fellowship. She completed her PhD in 2014 studying Salmonella pathogenesis and began employment at NCSU CVM in 2014. She received the AVMA-AVMF Young Investigator Award (2015) and the University of Florida Young Alumni Award (2015) recognizing her research contributions. Her research is currently funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Affiliations

Diplomate, American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (Large Animal)
Member American Society for Microbiology
Member American Veterinary Medical Association

Certifications

Gastroenterology, Infectious Diseases

Salmonella Pathogenesis:
Salmonella is the leading cause of bacterial foodborne gastroenteritis in people in the United States. This bacterium is capable of colonizing and causing disease in all species of mammals and birds. Animals that appear normal may harbor this pathogen in the intestine and may serve as sources of this bacterium to infect other animals and people. This is of particular concern in food-producing animals, as these animals are a direct conduit to contamination of the human food chain. My laboratory studies the properties of the bacterium that are needed for it to grow and cause disease in the mammalian intestine. My overall goal is to develop new antibiotics to specifically target this pathogen and new vaccines to prevent Salmonella colonization in large animals. This work is funded by the National Institutes of Health (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease) and by North Carolina State University.

Equine Colic:
Colic is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in horses. Colic can be caused by numerous factors including inadequate water intake, feeding practices, infectious diseases, and intestinal accidents. Work in my laboratory is searching for new infectious causes of colic with the overall goal to improve diagnosis and prevention of colic.